George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Rectify 3.1: Stroke of Luck

Rectify was back for its third season last night, and looks set to continue as one of the most thoughtful, intense, literate shows on television.

The US Supreme Court's decision late last month not to strike down capital punishment by at least one form of lethal injection makes Daniel's story in Rectify even more pressingly relevant, if that's possible, than it's been from the outset. He was released from death row on a technicality, and at the end of last season confesses in a deal that will keep him out of prison but away from his family.

His family and just about everyone other than the original prosecutor - now state senator Foulkes, who brokered the deal - are in varying states of horrified, disgusted, and furious about Daniel's confession - as was the audience, certainly including me. It's pretty clear that Daniel didn't do the killing, not withstanding his flashes of violence. For by far the most part, you won't find a gentler, more tender soul than Daniel's, and it sure looks as if one of the others in the gang of boys killed the girl by the river all those years ago.

The lack of absolute, 100%-complete closure, though, on what exactly Daniel did and didn't do is one of the powerful engines of this story. The other is its incredibly slow progression, usually not a plus in a narrative, but something that works just exquisitely in this series. Daniel has a month to pack up and get out of town, and you know that we're not likely at all to see that at the end of this season.

So why did Daniel confess? Likely because he wanted to get away from the pain he's been causing himself and his loved ones since his release. As much as he's desperately enjoying breathing in the real world outside of prison, he hasn't had an easy time of it. Indeed, few breaks if any have gone his way, until-

Senator Foulkes apparently has a stroke at the very end of this first episode of the third season. Although everyone in authority is saying they're sure that Daniel's second confession is a "done deal," it's likely that with Foulkes not bent on enforcing it, and the current prosector not at all convinced that Daniel did the crime, Daniel may finally be in for a piece of some kind of good luck in this show - the first since his release.

Is the stroke for Foulkes a stroke of luck for Daniel? I'm looking forward to rest of this season.

About Me

Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication &
Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997),
Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the
subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science
Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).His short stories
have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.Paul Levinson appears on "The
O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),“Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous
national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of
television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of
Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

e-mail received from a reader:Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom